The Game
by JillSwinburne
Summary: It's late at night and Stella convinces Mac to play a game to pass the time.


Another little Mac and Stella oneshot for you. This was inspired by an interview I saw with Melina Kanikredes on youtube. She was talking about this game she plays with Gary Sinise when they're running lines late at night, thought it fitted for Mac and Stella too. Apparently Melina always wins lol.

Discalimer: CSI:NY doesn't beling to me. Mac belongs to Stella and vice versa. The game belongs to Melina Kanikredes.

Hope you like :D

**The Game**

The lab was quiet. Night-shift techs shuffled softly between their workstations and the coffee machine in the blue light. Computers hummed gently and clocks ticked slowly towards dawn.

The quiet extended to Mac's office where the lab director and his partner were seated either side of his large desk. Mac had court in the morning and Stella had offered to stay back and keep him company while he read over the reports from the case. It gave her a chance to finish some of her own paperwork too.

Mac had ordered pizza and the remains of it sat in its brown box on the corner of his desk along with a couple of empty soda cans. But now it was past midnight and Stella had long ago finished her own paperwork. Unfortunately Mac was showing no inclination to call it a night just yet.

Stella finished the game of tic tac toe she shad been playing against herself, the fifth in a row to come to a draw, and stretched. Her feet were hitched up on Mac's desk, her boots discarded on the floor. As she stretched she took a long look at her partner, lost in the file on the desk before him. His brow was furrowed in concentration and the fingers of his left hand twitched and rubbed against each other slightly in an absent-minded gesture, his body still registering the absence of his wedding ring even after almost four years without it.

Any minute now he's going to tug on his earlobe, thought Stella, smiling to herself when he did just that. It was one of Mac's many funny little mannerisms that few others ever noticed. Tugging his earlobe meant he was trying to focus, the late hour probably taking its toll on his concentration. If he started pinching the bride of his nose he was really starting to lose it.

Stella shook her head and sighed. The sigh got his wavering attention. He glanced at the clock.

"It's late," he said. "You should head home."

"Are you?" she countered and he fixed her with that look he got whenever they were about to argue about his long hours or their effect on his health.

"Stella," was all he said.

She shrugged.

"Then I'll stay until you're done," she said.

Mac only shrugged and went back to his file but their momentary conversation had only highlighted how bored Stella was.

She tried playing tic tac toe again but grew exasperated quickly at her lack of ability to actually reach an outcome other than a draw. She gave up and drummed her fingers on her pad instead, tapping out a tune she'd heard on the radio earlier that day. She didn't have a clue who it was by or what it was called but she had liked the sound of it, she just wished she could remember more than the chorus.

"Stella."

Mac sounded irritated and she realised he was glaring at her drumming fingers.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly. Then a thought came to her.

"You wanna play a game?" she asked brightly.

He raised an eyebrow at her and indicated the pile of papers in front of him.

"I'm a little busy."

"Come on," she chided, "its not like you're getting much out of that file. Take a break for ten minutes and then you can go back to it, okay?"

She gave him her best smile and was delighted when he sighed and shoved the file away from him.

Wow, he must be really bored, she thought. Little wonder really; the case he had to testify for had been pretty open and shut, there wasn't a whole lot to go over, but Mac was always so thorough when it came to court.

She gave him a little smile of victory and heaved her legs down from his desk, instead folding them beneath her on her chair.

"Okay," he said, "how do we play this game?"

"It's easy," she replied, "Lindsay and I invented it a couple of weeks ago when we putting all those bottles together again after that bar fight."

The fight had in actual fact been a front for murder but with Adam on vacation Stella and Lindsay had been left with the wonderful task of putting broken bottles and glasses back together in the hope of finding prints. It had taken hours and their little game had evolved from a need to discuss something other than glass.

"I sing a song from a show and you have to guess which show it's from."

Mac looked less than impressed.

"Do I look like I know show tunes?" he asked.

"Come on, it's fun!"

A sigh, a heavy shrug.

"What the hell."

"Great!"

Stella sat up a little more and cast around the room, thinking.

Mac raised an eyebrow at her sudden silence.

"Aren't you supposed to sing or something?" he asked.

"I'm thinking," she replied.

"Really? I don't think I've ever seen you think quietly before."

His tone was teasing and she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Okay," she said after a second, "I got one. What's this from?"

She started to sing.

"Let me entertain you, let me make you smile."

Stella was a dancer, not a singer but she had a pleasant voice and Mac had to admit that there were worse ways to spend his evening than listen to his partner sing show tunes. It had been a while since they had done something fun and stupid like this together and he was momentarily reminded of the day the two of them had gone to the zoo. He had managed to win a giant stuffed monkey by correctly guessing the weight of the zoo's albino gorilla. He had presented the big hairy thing to Stella who had named it Claude and proceeded to talk to it for the rest of the day, even buying it an extra ice-cream, much to Mac's amusement. He wondered if Claude had survived the fire but doubted it; he should buy her a replacement as a joke.

He let his mind wander back to the present. He really didn't have a clue what Stella was singing. She finished and looked at him expectantly. He shook his head.

"Don't know," he said.

She glared at him.

"Not even a guess?"

He sighed.

"Phantom of the Opera?"

"No! Try again."

He thought a little harder, face contorted with the effort. Stella laughed at him.

"I was right," she said brightly, "you have absolutely no gay in you whatsoever do you?"

He gave another small shrug.

"I was raised on John Wayne movies," he replied.

She shook her head and laughed again.

"Okay, I'll try an easier one this time."

"Just for the record, what was it?"

"It's a song from Gypsy."

"Gypsy?"

"As in Gypsy Rose Lee."

"There's a musical about Gypsy Rose Lee?"

Stella rolled her eyes at him.

"Just sing the next damn song."

"Okay, try this one."

She was singing again. He knew this one, although he wasn't entirely sure where from.

"Oh what a beautiful morning," sang Stella, "Oh what a beautiful day. I got a beautiful feeling, everything's going my way."

Again she looked at him expectantly when she was done.

"Do I get a clue?" he asked hesitantly.

"It's a state."

Bingo.

"Oklahoma?"

"Give the man a cigar!"

Mac felt a little surge of pride, like the one and only time he'd beaten her at Monopoly. There was something very satisfying in beating Stella Bonasera at something she was good at.

"Right, this time I'm not gonna be so easy on you," she said but before she could finish the first line of her third song he had interrupted her.

"Getting to Know You from The King and I."

"How the hell did you know that?"

He looked bashfully at his fingertips.

"It used to be my mom's favourite movie. She used to sing that song all the time."

He had fond memories of his mother in her yellow apron, baking muffins and singing while he and his dad played cops and robbers in the back yard; her coming out to let him lick the bowl.

Stella was shaking her head in amazement.

"John Wayne and The King and I," she muttered, "sounds like one hell of a childhood."

She was grinning at him and he returned the smile, not needing to say anything.

Stella sighed and shifted in her seat.

"I'm tired of doing all the work," she said. "You're turn to sing."

Mac blinked at her.

"I don't sing," he replied bluntly.

"Come on, I'm not gonna tell anyone."

"Stella, even if I could sing, I don't know any other show tunes."

"So sing anything," she retorted. "Come on Mac, three songs, I did three so you do three. Besides, you're already two up on me, I need to win a few back."

He thought about it.

"Okay, but if word gets out about this just remember that I sign your paychecks."

"Just sing."

He thought quickly, something Stella might not know. Got one.

"We skipped the light fandango, turned cartwheels cross the floor."

"Whiter Shade of Pale, Procol Harum," she said almost immediately. "Is that the best you can do?"

Mac grunted in annoyance.

"Okay, how about this one? Childhood living is easy to do. The things you wanted, I bought them for you. Graceless lady, you know who I am. You know I can't let you, slide through my hands."

Stella smiled.

"Wild Horses, the Rolling Stones."

She was enjoying herself, glad she'd talked Mac into playing. For all his complaints he didn't have a bad voice, it was smooth and pleasant to listen to. She could just imagine him crooning into a microphone down at Cozy's, his guitar in his lap, a few female fans swooning in the front row, probably much to his amazement and embarrassment.

He was thinking again, staring in the nothingness over her shoulder, then he smiled.

"Got one?" she asked.

He nodded.

"Wasted and wounded, it ain't what the moon did, I've got what I paid for now.

See you tomorrow, hey Frank can I borrow a couple of bucks from you, to go

Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda,

You'll go waltzing Matilda with me."

He stopped and looked at her. She shook her head.

"Sorry, don't know."

"Tom Traubert's Blues, Tom Waits."

Stella smiled; three each, a draw.

Mac glanced down at the file on his desk, narrowed his eyes, looked back up at her.

"Come on, let's call it a night."

"You serious?" she asked.

He nodded, rising and pulling on his suit jacket all in one fluid movement.

"Sure, come on, we can share a cab home."

Stella bent to put her boots back on and frowned up at him.

"Mac, we live on opposite sides of town."

"Then you can make it worth my while."

He was teasing her. She stood and raised her eyebrows at him, hands on hips.

"Oh yeh, and what did you have in mind?"

He blinked at her in feigned innocence.

"Coffee," he replied sweetly.

"Irish coffee?"

A grin was her reply and he pushed the glass door of his office open, motioning her to leave first, taking her arm as they headed for the elevator.

"You know," she said, casting him a side-long look, "I have a massive collection of show tunes at home. I should really use this opportunity to educate you."

He gave a slight groan.

"If I pay the cab fair can we skip the education for one night?" he bargained.

She laughed.

"Deal."

They rode down in the elevator, still arm in arm.


End file.
